I'm late to posting, and many of you already know that Allen passed away peacefully this week at the age of 56.  We are of course heartbroken but rest easier knowing that he did everything he could to regain his health and he is no longer in pain.  There is a better place and I feel him everywhere now!  

I really love the message from the recently-deceased Norm Macdonald about dying of cancer; Al hated to feel like he "lost the battle" so I'll leave the quote from a NYT article about his passing here:

"Macdonald once talked about an uncle dying of cancer, skewering how we describe people suffering from that disease as 'waging a battle' because that means the last thing you do before you die is lose.  'I'm not a doctor, but I'm pretty sure that if you die, then the cancer also dies at the same time.  That to me is not a loss.  That's a draw.'"

Link to his obituary and funeral arrangements is below.  The funeral will be livestreamed for those who can't make it.  Thank you all for being such a comfort to us during this crappy disease.  We have had so many wonderful memories with each of you and are enormously blessed.

Allen Zdroik obituary